A World of Conduits
by dzha4225
Summary: (inFAMOUS 2 Evil ending AU) The universe is unforgiving, cruel and renegade. Instead of using the RFI to erase the Conduits from of the earth while saving what may only be a small part of the globe, Cole Macgrath destroyed the RFI and absorbed the Beast, activating every Conduit on earth while leaving only Conduits alive. Would the Reapers handle a race of superpowered humanity?


(inFAMOUS 2 Evil ending AU)

The universe is unforgiving, cruel and renegade. Instead of using the RFI to erase the Conduits from of the earth while saving what may only be a small part of the globe, Cole Mcgrath destroyed the RFI with and absorbed the Beast, activating every Conduit on earth while leaving only Conduits alive. Would the Reapers handle a race of superpowered humanity?

**Prelude**

"I can't take this anymore!"

As the Ray Field Inhibitor is smashed into thousands of irreparable pieces, John White collapsed on his knees- the need to kill 999 out of 1000 people in order to have the 1 guaranteed to survive, despite being better than chance of killing everyone if the RFI is activated, or the guaranteed chance that everyone will die if nothing was done, made the same sort of moral question as the Trolley Problem. And with the RFI now destroyed, the first option is now out.

"I may not be able to continue my plans, but you may be. Take my powers, and continue my plan. Millions are still infected with the Plague and would die within weeks. May be a 1 in 1000 chance, but still better than no chance of survival. And be quick."

As The Beast slowly dissolved into it's constituent elements and enters Cole Mcgrath's form, a massive burst of Ray Field Energy is produced, shocking New Marais and leaving 850s of newly activated Conduits behind.

**1 day later**

Cole Mcgrath enters New Hudson, a city of 2.5 million people infected with the Plague. 2561 Conduits emerged.

"The blast turned New Hudson into rubble, but it was worth it. Thousands of New Conduits emerged, each cured of the Plague, and as we emerged from the rubble, we each learned our new abilities..."

**1 week later**

As the marching army of active Conduits marched north, the U.S. government sent all their military power against them- only to be struck down effortlessly by the lightnings and elemental energy emanating from the ever-increasing horde of active Conduits, each cured of the Plague.

"They feared us. So they did what they always does. They sent their entire military toward us, yet nothing could fight Evolution... Just 1 10th of our combined power is all that was enough to quash their meager resistance."

**2 weeks later**

The entire east coast was covered by at least one Blast of Ray Field Energy- which means that what used to be the 150 million hosts of the Plague is now 167 thousand Conduits- slightly higher than what was expected. Which could be attributed to the slightly-higher concentration of the Conduit Gene than what DARPA originally concluded. And Conduits don't need to eat each other in order to get stronger.

"I initially thought that it was just a contingency plan against the Plague. But as Bertrand's plans were revealed and fell into the water, I realized that it was about the next evolution of Humanity. Active Conduits can activate dormant ones by just being present within their general range- as the city of New York have told me something. And the only way a genome could evolve is by the selective removal of genes that are disfavored in the local condition. By the removal of genomes that does not possess the Conduit Gene."

**3 weeks later**

Thanks to the effort made on the East Coast by Cole Mcgrath, the Ray Field Plague was completely eradicated- as the localized blasts vaporized every non-Conduit human within the area where the Plague pathogen was present, while activating all potential Conduits so that they are no longer affected by the Plague, the Ray Field Plague pathogen went extinct without a host. By now, the total amount of active Conduits on the globe is 189810. each with a different variety of elemental powers ranging from electricity to paper.

"As active Conduits we does not need to eat, drink, sleep or breath... just the elements our power was based on is all that was needed to sustain us. We are naturally suited for space travel- most of us had the power to blink across long distances in various manner. And nearly two third of us could achieve some sort of stable flight. If we concentrate ourselves enough. We had the power to pass through the Great Filter even just as ourselves. And our only weakness was liquid water. Which there was none in the vacuum of space."

**Nov 29****th**** 2012, Seattle, 3 weeks and 2 days after The Beast**

"No, that isn't true."- Alex Mercer, certain rogue geneticist who was one of the pioneers of gene therapy in the alternate 2012 timeline. "Gene editing could be used instead of natural evolution, inheritance or mutation to change the genome of an individual, and by extent, a species with ease, which could give even normal people the Conduit Gene that grants power through a large variety of methods, methods that are not limited to just an exposure to Ray Field Energy."

As the shady figure hacks into the DUP database that governs the testing for Conduit genes, a formulation start to emerge on Alex Mercer's computer.

"And now we just need blood samples from Conduit-positive people. Which may be quite hard to come by..."

**Dec 3****rd**** 2012, Washington D.C.**

As a localized Blast of Ray Field Energy emerges from Cole MCgrath, the entire population of Washington D.C. was either vaporized, which includes all the higher government officials, or have their Conduit gene activated. 724 Conduits emerged from the rubble of Washington D.C. as the army of Conduits lead by Beast- Cole MCgrath start to advance westward, into the middle United States.

"If we just sample genomes randomly from debris on the street, and the screen the samples using the Conduit test... we could isolate genomes that are Conduit positive and that are Conduit negative. We then just need to find out the difference, and implement the change."

Pulling up the hood of an innocuous jacket, Alex Mercer took out a broom... and starts to sweep up and sample for genetic material that are found in skin flakes all over the streets.

**Dec 9****th**** 2012, Seattle**

"Hope that this worked..."

Alex Mercer injected the serum into a lab rat, before exposing it to Ray Field Energy in his small lab... the mouse initially seems to wither away, but soon expanded in size and exploded violently, what appears to be mists of oil spatters the platform.

"Experiment 39- Partial success, test subject displays typical reaction of Conduit gene being activated in non-sentient organisms. Further improvement may be required. Delivery mechanism... non-ideal. Human subject tests necessary."

**Dec 15****th ****2012**** Houston, Mississippi, central Texas**

Bursts of Ray Field Energy leveled every building in the city, and once again, 2618 Conduits have emerged from the rubble, while others have been turned into vapour.

Having conducted every possible animal tests he could possible, Alex Mercer decided to test it on hobos in a minor, hard-to-detect neighborhood.

The first Conduit-producing serum, termed "Neon", was aerosolized and released in a small neighborhood just south of Seattle city, which Delsin Rowe happened to be one of the test subjects of the "Human Test" conducted by Alex Mercer on the experiments to create Conduits from normal people.

As a localized field of Ray Field Energy is being gently projected onto the neighborhood, the inhabitants start to feel a burning sensation... before 6 out of 7 pf the subjects starts to display an uncontrollable elemental reaction and exploded into a torrent of raw elements. The other 1 7th of the neighborhood inhabitants did not seem to react... but it was expected.

**Dec 16****th ****2012**** Seattle**

Delsin woke up from his bed, everything seems usual. The local apartment seems to be a little quieter than usual, and many of his neighbors didn't seem to wake up at all. Looking out of the window, however, he found that many of the windows within the apartment was blown, and what seems to be ice, rocks and solidified lava could be seen coming out of many of them.

Donning his shoes, Delsin Rowe exited his apartment, and casually ran down the stairs.

"Hello John, did you see Einsen coming out today?"

"No. I didn't see him... yet. It was quite unusual this night. The sound of explosions... and the flashes of light... luckily I wasn't hurt." John Connor shook hands with Delsin Rowe... before seeing Delsin pass out right in front of him.

"Are there any doctors? I have someone that needed help!" John Connor panicked and called for help. What seems to be particles of rust could be seen emanating from one of his clenched hands.

Delsin, however, quickly regained consciousness. Attempting to stand up from his fall, Delsin instead turned into a torrent of rust-like particles from the lying state, and re-materialized standing upright, in front of a shocked Conner. Attempting to escape, Delsin subconsciously shifted multiple times into the same torrent of rust-like particles while he was running, even passing through a fence gate while in his rust-like state.

"Stop this.. Wait. This was one of the powers of the Bio-Terrorists that ravaged the East Coast... Which means that..."

John Connor followed the strange-acting Delsin Rowe, running across alley after alley chasing him through the small neighborhood. A metal fence-gate lies in front of him, which Delsin seems to have went through. John thought of going to the other side, approached the gate and attempted to climb it. But as soon as his body goes near the gate, the metal bars the fence gate was made of, starts to rust away. The rust particles fell onto the ground, some got absorbed into Connor's body. And a John Connor- shaped hole soon appeared on the Gate, which John quickly passed through.

In the same jacket and hood he uses for secrecy, Alex Mercer silently recorded the result of the experiment from the top of bridge just north of the small neighborhood he was experimenting upon. "Neon: preliminary tests partially successful... although 6 7th of all test subjects died, the rest gained Conduit powers as expected. Which is an almost 135-fold increase when considered the median concentration of the Conduit gene within the general populace."

"Saving 1 7th of all population... it's at least better than letting 99.9 percent of them die to the crazed Beast that was ravaging the East Coast... And we still does not know whether the Plague was actually gone or not."

**Dec 19****th**** 2012 Seattle**

"Test success rate... not increasing. Still around 1/7th. Transmission method... dramatically improved. We just needs to scatter this into the atmosphere anywhere, and the rest is all automated. Evangelion will spread to every individual in the world. And the presence of Active Conduits will cause a cascade of Conduit Activation throughout all the surviving general population. By Day 21, at least in simulation, every Human on earth will be either Powered or Dead." "Though improvement on Evangelion in term of survival rates of Subjects would still be possible... more Human subject tests would be necessary." "And..."

The door of Alex's lab was suddenly busted open by agents of the DUP, and shots peppered the small laboratory. "Raid on suspect Bioterrorist activity was successful- Suspect Alex Mercer was shot dead. I repeat, Suspect Alex Mercer was dead."

Unknowing to the DUP agents, the shots punctures an aerosol canister of the Conduit-forming serum Evangelion, and the dead body of Alex Mercer happen to fall right on top of the leaking canister, mists of a yellow substance have enshrouded the lab space, escaped the busted door, and a large amount of it have silently seeped into Alex Mercer's body. And a source of Ray Field Energy, which was used for irradiating lab animals for testing, was knocked over, the invisible field of radiation have started to permeate everything within the now-busted lab.

**Dec 20****th**** 2012, DUP Morgue and evidence storage, Seattle**

"Contamination of unknown material... test results inconclusive... appears to be retroviral agent intended to change certain parts of the Human genome..."

"Source of Ray Field Radiation recovered... appears to be artificial- it worked just like a Ray Sphere... just using a different power source than Bioelectricity. Implication terrifying- Blast shards may no longer be used to track nascent Bioterrorists."

"Recovered body appears to be unstable... Suspect Bioterrorist- like activity. Suspected activity. Increasing. Suspected activity. Increasing. Activity. Increasing. Activity. Increasing..."

Suddenly, the body of Alex Mercer opened his eyes. Before a concentrated burst of radiation utterly cooked the two DUP scientists that were examining his "dead" body, glow of ionization still lingering in the air within the small room.

"So... I was one of the lucky 1 7th ... The serum worked, and I am now a Conduit... let's see what kind of power it gave me." after running briefly toward the nearest exit, Alex Mercer suddenly transformed into a trail of ionization, whizzing up the outer wall of the small DUP holding facility and over it, before re-materializing on the middle of the streets. "Radiation manipulation... standard Conduit mobility including dodging and wall-running... Or is it?"

CODEX: The Conduit Gene

Despite being a rare mutation within the Human genome, the Conduit gene is in fact, quite simple. Initially responsible for coding a specific ligand-gated ion channel within the Human nervous system, the Conduit mutation causes the resulting protein to interact strongly with what's known as the Ray Field Energy, storing it, transmitting it and releasing it upon activation- effectively giving the bearer of the mutation the ability to control Ray Field Energy at will.

Upon manifestation, the Ray Field Energy that is stored within the nervous structure of a Conduit could be used to interact with and control particles of a specific composition and shape- allowing abilities that was very similar to that of Elemental Magic from Old Earth Fantasy books.

Conduits can not get the particles they manipulate for free however- in order to use their power, a Conduit must first absorb particles of their specific element, storing them in a "halo" volume just outside of their bodies alongside with Ray Field Energy. Which could be then released at will, creating the manifestation of the Conduits' powers.

It have been confirmed however, that the incorporation and manipulation of Ray Field Energy into the physiology of a Conduit also profoundly alters their physiology and metabolism- the most prominent being the ability to transform into the respective element of their power, and the ability to rapidly heal in the presence of said element. The physical body of a Mature Conduit is little more than element particles enveloped by Ray Field Energy shaped into the form of their original Human Form through the subconsciousness of their mind- a shape which also happens to include clothing and accessories as well. As a result, Conduits can not age (or at least age very slowly), though reproduction is still possible if the elements of the parents are Compatible- That is that if they does not react with each other upon contact or mixing.

The unique physiology of Conduits also renders them vulnerable to liquid water- as Ray Field Energy dissipates within bodies of Dihydrogen Monoxide, a Conduit that contacts bodies of water will steadily lose their Ray Field Energy and elemental composition, taking damage until completely dissipating and dying. This is specifically prominent in Conduits of elemental powers that reacts with Water itself- Fire is put out by water, while Electricity is grounded with water. Which means that Conduits welding such powers are especially vulnerable, dissipating even upon the slightest touch with any bodies of water.


End file.
